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Red Rock,Oklahoma no-tillproducer TonyKodesh is alwaysthinking, alwayssearching for new efficiencies to begained. He usually has several back-up plans in store as well. Thatflexibility has come from years ofwrangling with the extreme varia-bility in weather so common in hispart of world. Not much fazesKodesh anymore: “With all the dif-ferent crops we grow, what we loseon one crop we will make up for on another. Weather that is bad forone crop is often just right for a different crop.” Plus, he has theadded opportunity to hay or grazecrops in the rotation.

Kodesh’s flexibility certainly isn’t a random scattergun approach tomanagement—lots of planning andresearch goes into the process. Tonystarted farming in 1978 in the man-ner typical for the area at that time,with lots of plowing and wheat graz-ing. The tillage part always botheredhim. He understood the concept ofneeding a firm seedbed to enablethe seed to draw moisture from thesurrounding soil. What he couldn’t

make sense of was “tearingup the perfect seedbed of astubble field, and thenneeding to pack it backdown again for planting.”

That question led him toexplore no-till further. Inthe fall of ‘95 he bought a15-foot JD 750 drill, neverhaving seen one before, andset out experimenting withno-till seeding. He strug-gled a bit at first, especially

An Abundance of Opportunityby Matt Hagny

Heavy residue is no trouble for Tony’s JD 1850 air seeder.

March 2002 • Volume 1 • Number 2

Rotations and intense management pay off in high-yielding wheat for Oklahoma no-till producer TonyKodesh. Note the thick uniform stand.

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Contents

FE

ATURE FAR M

ER

TO

N Y K O D E S H

Last free issue!Subscribe today!

See page 51.

Abundant Opportunity.............25

Seeding Success.........................30

How Did We Get Here? ...........34

Notes On ‘New’ Crops .............38

Inoculants Are Alive .................40

South DakotaNo-Till Tour 2001 .....................40

Beck: The Future ......................45

No-Till Renaissance ..................48

Editors:Bud DavisMatt Hagny Roger LongRandy SchwartzKeith Thompson

E-mail: editor.leading.edge@notill.org

Subscriptions & Advertising:Tim ChristianDrue Durst

Phone: 888.330.5142E-mail: tchristian@kscable.comddurst@kscable.com

No-Till on the Plains Inc. publishesLeading Edge four times per year.

No-Till on the Plains Inc.P.O. Box 236McPherson, KS 67460-0236888.330.5142Website: www.notill.org© Copyright 2002 No-Till on the Plains Inc.All rights reserved.

Partial funding for this publication is providedfrom the USDA-EQIP. The United StatesDepartment of Agriculture prohibits discrimina-tion in all its programs and activities on the basisof race, color, national origin, gender, religion,age, disability, sexual orientation, and marital orfamilial status (not all prohibited bases apply toall programs). Persons with disabilities whorequire alternative means of communication ofprogram information (Braille, large print, audio-tape, etc.) should contact the USDA’s TARGETCenter at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). Tofile a complaint, write the USDA, Director ofCivil Rights, Room 3226W Whitten Building,14th and Independence Ave., SW, Washington,D.C. 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice orTDD). USDA is an equal opportunity providerand employer.

Disclaimer: Mention of trade names does notimply endorsement or preference of any com-pany’s product by Leading Edge, and anyomission of trade names is unintentional.Recommendations are current at the time ofprinting. Farmer experiences may not work forall. Views expressed are not necessarily those ofthe Editors or Leading Edge.

VNo-Till on the Plains Inc’s Mission: To assist agricultural producers inimplementing economically, agro-nomically, and environmentallysound crop production systems.Objective: To increase the adop-tion of cropping systems that willenhance economic potential, soiland water quality, and quality of lifewhile reducing crop productionrisks.

with hairpinning of the wheat strawin muddy fields, which left most ofthe soybean seed on top, promptinghim to ask himself, “What have Idone? —This drill won’t plant any-thing!” He kept after it. As the soilsfirmed up, the hairpinning problemwent away. His no-tillcrops were

rather successful during those earlyyears, and he always had plenty ofcustom work to keep the drill busy.

In January of ‘97, Tony attended thefirst ‘No-Till on the Plains’ confer-ence in Salina, KS, where hearingDwayne Beck convinced him thathe was on the right track. As theyreturned home from the conference,he told the other farmers riding inthe same car that he was going to go“whole hog” and sell his tillageequipment, which he did thatspring. He has been 100% no-tillever since. Today, Tony says, “I

really like where we’re at. The bene-fits of no-till far outweigh anynegatives … I didn’t like the direc-tion we were going for profitabilityprior to no-till. We manage our risksso much better with no-till.”

Turbocharged Rotations

The cornerstone of that risk man-agement is of course diversity.Diversity not only of crops, but alsoin how they fit into rotational nichesand how they are managed. Forinstance, young pure stands ofalfalfa are managed for hay in theusual fashion, having been no-tillseeded in either the fall or spring.Tony consistently achieves excellentstands with 10 lbs/a of alfalfa seedwith his 1850 air drill, seedingdirectly into the stubble without bal-ing or burning any of it. Kneeling ina perfect stand of alfalfa seedlingsamidst heavy wheat straw, Tonygrabs a handful of the straw andexclaims, “Why would anyone wantto get rid of this?”

As the alfalfa stands get thinner overthe years, Tony proceeds to seedwheat directly into the live alfalfa.The wheat is then fertilized andmanaged for grazing (“no incidenceof bloat so far”) or hayed off as awheat/alfalfa blend (Tony feeds mostof his own hay). Occasionally theyhave kept some for grain as well,which generally yields from 40 to 65bu/a in this scenario. Tony explainsthat it is really the perfect combina-tion, “Alfalfa is only active when itwarms up in the spring, and beforeit gets too dry in late summer.Wheat fills in the time when alfalfaisn’t doing anything.” He also notesthat grazing interseeded wheatreduces alfalfa weevil numbers.When the alfalfa finally gets too thinto make respectable hay crops, it iskilled with herbicide and he goeson with his cash crop rotation, typi-cally starting by seeding wheat forgrain into the killed alfalfa.

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Tony shows us the wheat and milo residue inhis cotton field. He’s optimistic about cottonin his rotation, noting the crop’s resilienceand profit potential. Cotton handles the hotdry weather rather well, and is gaining acresin Oklahoma and south-central Kansas.

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“The benefits of no-till faroutweigh any negatives.We manage our risks so

much better with no-till.”

high percentage of wheat, doing twowheat crops back-to-back and thenstaying out of wheat for 2 or 3 yearswould be better—recall the ‘Stacking’article in the Dec. issue.)

Kodeshes’ rotations are continuallybeing analyzed and modified. Theyhave had a thousand acres of soy-beans every year since ‘98 and havenever had farm avg. yields below 20bu/a until this past year. Tony stillisn’t shook up: “We have insurancefor the bad years. And while 20 bu/abeans may not sound like much, wemake up for it in the followingwheat crop. Wheat following soybeans is very inexpensive togrow—you just plant and fertilizeit—and it produces tremendousyields most years.” Tony is enthusi-astic about cotton, which he tried in‘98 and again in ‘01. Last year, heavyrains and cold temperatures afterplanting severely thinned his cottonstand, causing him to plan on killingit out and replanting the field tomilo. His son convinced him to

In a twist on this scheme, Tony takesestablished stands of bermudagrassand drills wheat into it in the fall.The wheat provides an extra grain orhay crop before the bermuda getsactive again in late spring. A lightfall frost sends the bermuda backinto dormancy and allows for wheatestablishment. Tony really likes the“tremendous” hay the bermudagrassproduces, and notes that it is easy tomanage.

Besides wheat, alfalfa, and bermuda,Kodeshes’ crops include soybeansand milo, and occasionally some cot-ton or cowpeas. The soybean andmilo acreages are spread furtherinto both single-crop (full-season)and double-crop after wheat, givingthem an opportunity to take advan-tage of rains whenever they maycome—a necessary strategy in cen-tral Oklahoma. Their rotation istypically a two-year cycle of cash-crop wheat, then a double-crop ofsoybeans or milo, followed by a full-season soybean or milo, or occasion-ally cotton—thus harvesting 3 cropsin 24 months. The cycle starts againwith wheat seeded into the soybean,milo, or cotton stubble. (Editors:while successful so far, and certainlyan improvement over continuouswheat, Kodeshes’ alternate-yearwheat may run into significant prob-lems in the future. To maintain a

keep the cotton, which went on toproduce 375 lbs/a of lint, with basi-cally no inputs or management otherthan spraying out the weeds (it wasRoundup Ready) and applying adefoliant and boll opener to hastenharvest. “This year really proved tome just how tough the cotton plantis. It really requires far less manage-ment than I originally thought.”

Tony isn’t quite so thrilled with hismilo, although he recognizes itsimportance in diversifying the rota-tion. He notes that trucking con-sumes a disproportionate amount oflow-value grains such as milo, withobvious effects on profits. Kodeshalso recognizes milo’s importance inlengthening the rotation, and thatthe atrazine used in the milo year isparticularly good at controlling rye-grass, which is somewhat problem-atic for some other herbicides inother crops. Kodesh says he hasreally cut his weed pressure, partic-ularly crabgrass and bindweed, withimproved rotations and low-distur-bance no-till.

Wheat: ‘To the Hilt’Management

The most intensively managed cropin Kodeshes’ rotation is the wheat, acrop that many producers and evensome researchers condemn as beingunresponsive to management. Thatcertainly hasn’t been Tony’s experi-ence. Tony uses theagronomic

guidance of OptiCrop consultants toproduce exceptionally high-yieldinghigh-quality wheat, much of which isconditioned and sold as certifiedseed. Tony almost always has wheatyields running around 60 bu/a andup, and has had several years with

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Kodeshes’ double-crop milo made some-thing of itself even in the tough ‘01season, due largely to the heavy wheatstubble remaining on the surface. In man-aging around Oklahoma’s erratic weather,Kodeshes sometimes utilize cattle to dotheir harvesting for them.

Tony examines seedling alfalfa for nodula-tion. Kodesh no-till seeds the alfalfadirectly into his abundant wheat stubble.Good alfalfa stands—no problem!

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High-management wheat:yields really took off once

Kodesh got away frommonoculture wheat.

fields of 90+ bu/a. Tony attributesthe consistently good results to anumber of things, but says the yieldsreally took off once they got awayfrom monoculture wheat. “It’s reallythe whole program: proper standestablishment, fertility, rotations,and so on—you can’t leave anythingout or you won’t get good results.”

Good wheat management forKodesh starts with high-quality seedno-till drilled into soybean, milo, orcotton stubble, or into killed alfalfa(the wheat planted into live alfalfastands generally isn’t intended forgrain, and so is managed differ-ently). Wheat managed for highgrain yields is planted at a rate of 30seeds per square foot; late plantings(Nov.) are increased to 35 or 40seeds/sq. ft. Care is taken to get it ata consistent depth, usually about 11⁄2inches. Tony issomewhat con-cerned about theuneven seed dis-tribution withinthe row by the1850’s air system,but has beenunable to resolvethe problem.During seeding,some rows areshut off every 60feet to createtramlines for thesprayer to followlater. All wheatseed is treatedwith fungicide, and some with sys-temic insecticide as well—Tonybelieves controlling aphids in the fallis important, since they sometimesvector the barley yellow dwarf virus.Tony notes that later planting cer-tainly helps avoid aphid and BYDproblems, but runs the risk of theweather turning too wet to get thewheat planted.

The high-management wheat isplanted considerably later than thewheat for grazing or haying, and is

also fertilized differently. All thewheat gets a 12-30-20 blend of dryfertilizer applied in-furrow at plant-ing. The intensively managed wheatreceives no further N until mid-January when it gets a shot appliedas a UAN stream with Kodeshes’RoGator—they always stream theUAN rather than spraying it, due topotential for increased N losses andresidue tie-up with sprayed UAN.The second shot of UAN is appliedat first joint, about mid-March,again as a stream. Any foliar fungi-cides, insecticides, or herbicides areapplied in separate passes. AlthoughTony has applied foliar fungicides 4out of the last 5 years, and sees theyield responses to justify doing so,he also notesthat the rota-tions have

Flexible and Aware

All Kodeshes’ wheat acres are dou-ble-cropped to either milo orsoybeans. Tony says they’ve alwayshad enough moisture to plant theirdouble-crops, which he partly attrib-utes to timely wheat harvest andkeeping the straw upright by using aShelbourne stripper head since ‘98(not to mention the truly heavystraw resulting from their intensemanagement of the wheat crop).Tony has also tried double-croppingcowpeas for forage. He notes thatwhen he turned the cattle out ontothe green cowpeas, they ate all thecrabgrass and pigweeds but wouldn’ttouch the lush cowpeas. Later, after

the cowpeas hadstarted maturing, thecattle devoured them.

In another instance ofdiscovering opportu-nity, last year whenhis double-crop beansfailed, Tony turnedthe calves onto themand reports that theygained 2 lbs. per day.Tony also mentions

that if a big wind should flatten hisdouble-crop milo before he gets itall harvested, cattle could salvagemuch of it. He explains that hedoesn’t have trouble with cattle rut-ting the field like he did during histillage days—the soil has regainedstructure and the heavy stubblehelps support the animal hooveswhen the soil gets wet. Commentingon the firmness of the soil underfoot, Tony sounds almost indignantat having to state what should becommon knowledge: “There’s noneed for ripping this—the cropsgrow just fine.” Indeed, this is thesoil’s natural state.

Kodesh grid samples and uses thatinformation to variably apply limewhen needed. Tony says the surfaceapplication of fine water-plant limeworks just fine. “I’ve seen majorgrowth and yield differences in both

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Tony strives to keep the soil covered with plenty of crop residue.

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cleaned up his weeds to the point ofnot needing any herbicides on hiswheat the last two years.

Having seen the successes of inten-sively managed wheat, Tony isbeginning to turn his attention to thesummer crops. “We started with thewheat, because we knew we couldgrow it profitably and that itresponded to management.” Kodeshnotes that the summer crops are stillrather inconsistent, which may pre-clude some advantages of intensivemanagement.

soybeans and wheat on the first yearfollowing surface application of thelime.”

Kodeshes’ management also empha-sizes low overhead, simplicity, andtimeliness. All of their seeding isdone with the 7.5-in. Deere 1850 airdrill that they purchased in thespring of ‘98, and Tony says it hasplanted over 10,000 acres every yearsince then (they do quite a bit ofcustom work). The openers are care-fully maintained and frequentlyadjusted to maximize performance.“I don’t think I’d want any otheropener.” Not only does it plant hiswheat, soybeans, and alfalfa, but alsothe milo and cotton. He is contem-plating adding a planter in thefuture, but really likes the simplicityand speed of the air drill. He recog-nizes the compromises, and notesthat his current perspective is that“getting over the acres on time ismore important than having everyseed at exactly the right spacing.”Still, he thinks economic advantagesmay exist to having his cotton put inwith a 30-in. planter, and perhapsthe milo as well.

It Just Gets Better

Despite doing all their own planting,spraying, fertilizing, and harvesting(except cotton), plus tending thecattle and handling seed, they have

no full-time hired help (they didhave a full-time hired man in theirtillage days). Tony’s wife, Connie,does much of the finances and keepsthe data organized. Their son andthree daughters help with field workwhen possible, since they all attendnearby colleges and high school.They have some additional part-timehelp in the summer, mostly forwheat harvest. Tony says, “We canget so much more done now thatwe’re not doing all that tillage.”They seem to be putting that time togood use, either with expanded farmactivities or family time.

No-till is a clear winner for Kodesh.He is painfully aware of the erosionoccurring on tilled fields in the area.

He lamentsthe destruc-tiveness andthe produc-tivity lostjust in thelast 80 or 90years thatthe soil inhis area hasbeen tilled.Tony is veryproud ofthe fact thatany waterrunning offof his no-till

fields is crystal clear, versus the mudcoming off of neighboring tilledfields. Tony points out that whiletillage is destroying so much land,his fields are actually improving inproductivity: “My infiltration is get-ting better, rooting is better, organicmatter is up.”

For Kodesh, “It’s all about turningmoisture into grain, and we do thatbetter with no-till.” He mentions,“The last four years have been ablur,” referring to his drastic andcontinual overhaul of his operationand the exciting results. When askedabout problems with no-till, he says,“It just gets better every year.” Hereturns to a point Dwayne Beckmade at that first conference: no-tillwill work anywhere—it doesn’t mat-ter where you’re at or what type ofsoil you have. He points at theundisturbed soil in the field wherewe stand, “I already have the perfect seedbed, any time I care to plant. Why would anyone want to destroy that?”

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The 1850 drill leaves the stubble mostly intact.

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“It’s all about turningmoisture into grain, andwe do that better with

no-till.”

Tony has fields of established bermudagrass used for hay, but drills wheatinto the bermuda when it goes dormant in the fall; the wheat is taken asan extra hay crop in the spring before the bermuda gets going again.

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While many important decisions arealready in place by planting time,the most crucial step towards prof-itable crop production takes placeduring the seeding operation. Itgoes without saying that before youever head to the field, the mostimportant piece of equipment onthe farm should’ve been thoroughlychecked out and the maintenancedone—but I’m not

referring to that shiny new tractor orthat cool four-wheel-drive pickup.No, the most important piece ofequipment a farmerhas is their planter ordrill. If the plantingequipment isn’t doingits job then all thathigh-priced seed, fer-tilizer, herbicide, andwhatever else one usesto grow a crop will becompletely wasted(maybe not in thesense that the input isphysically gone, justthat the chance tomake a profit hasevaporated). I knowthis is true because Ihave personally madenearly every mistakepossible during oneplanting season oranother. Let’s look atfive things that affectstand, vigor, and yield:

placing fertilizer, moving residue,placing the seed, seed firming, andseed covering.

Research, experience, and reportsfrom plenty of other no-tillers con-vinces me that putting down starterfertilizer will improve yields in cornand milo. I’m talking 2x2 (actually3x0) placement here, not the in-fur-row pop-up, for applying 1⁄3 to all ofthe N and possibly some other nutri-ents as well—one can and shouldput some phos. fertilizer with theseed, but N in the pop-up must bevery minimal and isn’t enough to getcorn or milo off to a great start. For2x2, a single-disc fertilizer openerworks great because it improves thefunction of the rest of the plantingequipment by cutting the residue sothat the residue manager (rowcleaner) can handle it more easily.

Note that the fertilizer opener doesn’tneed to run particularly deep.

As more residue is left on the sur-face, a residue manager can helpyou by moving some (say 70%)residue out of the path of the openerand straightening up the rest to stop‘hairpinning’ of the residue into theseed trench. Hairpinning happenswhen the opener fails to cut throughthe residue and instead tucks it intothe furrow in a ‘U’ shape; hairpin-ning is worst when straw is thick andbunchy, and when the soil isn’t firmunderneath (nothing solid for theopener blade to cut against). Now ifyou don’t have much residue on thesurface, or you wait until the residueis completely dry and you aren’t try-ing to plant into cool soils, thenmoving residue isn’t a big concern.But I have found that, at a mini-

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What went wrong? Severe hairpinning of residue occurred on a damp foggy morning—the row cleanersshould have been adjusted to move more straw out of the way. Hairpinning results in poor seed-to-soil contact and increased allelopathic effects, resulting in gaps in the stand and uneven plant size.

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If the planting equipmentisn’t doing its job, then all those other inputs

and efforts will be completely wasted.

Seeding Successby Keith Thompson T E C H N I Q U E

Keith Thompson is a longtime no-till producer near Osage City, KS

mum, straightening upthe residue and movingat least some of it surehelps on controllingplanting depth.

Precise SeedPlacement

Creating conditions forall the plants to comeup within 48 hours ofone another keeps thecompetition betweenthe plants to a mini-mum (the last ones upbasically becomeweeds). So let’s look atthe ‘optimum’ depth forsome different crops:corn ~ 11⁄2 inches, milo~ 1 to 11⁄4 inches, soy-beans 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 inches,although deeper seed-ing may sometimes benecessary to find ade-quate moisture. Somecrops like corn andwheat need to be at acertain minimum depthfor proper crown rootdevelopment, while oth-ers like soybeans needonly be in adequatemoisture. Realize thatgoing deeper than nec-essary results in placingseeds into colder soilsas well as increasingthe distance that theseedling must push through beforeemerging, both of which drasticallyincrease the stress on that seedlingand add to variability in emergencetiming within the row. Plantingdeeper than required also results inmore soil compaction, opener wear,and horsepower required. Checkingdepth can be tough to do and I don’tfeel using a tape or ruler works allthat great. Instead, I check depthwith this nifty little digger from aseed company that is pointed withmarkings every 1⁄4 inch. I’ve foundthat corn planted at 11⁄2 inches sure

looks too deep, until I checked itwith my gauge. Also, be sure tocheck depth in several places—youwon’t get a second chance to get itright.

Single-disc or double-disc openers—which is best? Let’s worry firstabout making sure the blades aresharp and not worn too much—thedesign issues can be debated someother time. Dull opener bladescause more hairpinning and aremore difficult to push into the soil.Another thing I’ve seen on single-

disc openers is that thegauge tire needs to betouching the blade,since this helps holdthe sidewall togetherlong enough for theseed to get to the bot-tom of the trench. Wehave at times experi-enced problems withdry soil falling in withthe seed due to thegauge tires being wornout and too far fromthe opening disc. Thiscan also happen if theedge of the seed bootis worn out.

Double-disc openersneed even more atten-tion, not only forneeding sharp blades,but for keeping theseed tube and seed-tube guard compo-nents functioningproperly. Again keepthe gauge wheels tightagainst the openers—we want the sidewallto stay intact until theseed is placed. Keep-ing the sidewall intactand achieving consis-tent depth requireenough down-pressureon the row unit toensure the gauge tirestays on the soil sur-face continually.

Simply checking to see that thegauge tires are firmly on the surfacewhen the planter is stopped isn’tenough (like a car suspension, therow units ‘ride up’ when moving);look in several places along one fur-row to determine if the opener ismaintaining a consistent depth—alltoo often what a person needs ismore down-pressure or frameweight, not a deeper setting on thegauge mechanism.

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This planter was working great: when the residue manager moves 50 to 70%of the straw out of the way, things go so much better. Note how heavy thestraw is, and that all the corn plants are at the same growth stage (this cornhad no rain on it from planting until 2 days prior to this photo). Attention todetail at planting can pay big dividends.

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Germination Zone

The next thing that needs to happenis for the seed to be pressed firmlyinto the bottom of the seed trench.I’m not going to recommend anyone piece of equipment to use, butbasically there are the ones thatslide along in the

trench to push the seed into the bot-tom, or a wheel that does the same.Each has its pluses and minuses; thesliders are pretty cheap and simplebut under certain conditions gathermud on the sides, and sometimesdon’t do enough firming (watchthem like a hawk). The wheels havebearings to go bad, and many aretoo wide to get to the bottom of thetrench to press the seed in properly,or are too small in diameter and fillup with mud rather quickly. Eitherfirming device is better than having

nothing, and designs are getting bet-ter. (I want something perfect thatworks all the time; maybe some day?)

We almost are done, but one of themost important things is needed yet:break up the sidewall and cover theseed. The standard wheels workokay if you have wonderful soil andit’s not too dry or too wet (I’d like tomeet that guy who farms under per-fect conditions—I saw the picture ina magazine once). A spoked or scal-loped closing wheel helps accom-plish this goal. A solid wheel will

work okay wheneverything isoptimum, butcan cause thesidewall to becompressed sohard that theseedlings can’tbreak through,or under someconditions thesidewall will dryout and openup to where Icould see theseed at the bot-tom of the seedtrench (it didshow the seedfirmer was

working!) An improvement is aspoked wheel to break up the side-wall and place loose soil over theseed. Various shapes and designs ofspoked wheels are available, andbrackets to hold them at differentangles. Depending on the configura-tion and characteristics of your soil(how long in no-till, texture, etc.),the results can range from excessivelifting of the sidewall and pullingseeds loose, to not enough sidewallbreakage or too much packing.Some designs also have trouble withmud build-up.

These are some things we have doneto our planter and drills, and I cansay with certainty that we have beengetting better stands and higheryields more consistently than we didwhen we were using a tillage system.I attribute this to the no-till system,changes in soil condition, and care-ful setting up and adjusting of themost important piece of equipmenton our farm. Changes were made tomeet the goals of getting the fertilizernear the seed, moving some residue,making sure the seed gets to thebottom of the seed trench, pressingit into the trench and destroying thesidewall. Getting your no-till seederto meet these goals will go a longway toward a successful year.

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I can say with certaintythat we have consistentlybeen getting better stands

and higher yields thanwhen we were using a

tillage system.

A planter setup similar to Thompson’s prescription. The attachmentshe describes may not be important in ideal conditions, but canmake the difference between getting a stand or not when underadverse conditions. Thompson, who scuba dives and does crazythings on mountain bikes, likes the adventure in his personal life,but won’t tolerate unnecessary risks in crop production!

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Keith Thompson with another perfect stand (he works hard at it). Perfect stands are noaccident. But with the right knowledge and equipment, achieving excellent stands and vig-orous crops is easier with no-till than in tillage systems.

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Wonderful results—that’s thereport from a large number of no-till producers using the (Case-IH)SDX firming wheels (a 5/8 x 9-in.rubber wheel) on their Deere750/1850 and 1560/1860 drillsduring the past two years. TheSDX firming wheel is much nar-rower than the original Deerefirming wheel (the Deere wheelis a full one inch wide), so theSDX wheel fits down into the ‘v’of the furrow dramatically better.

The SDX wheel (part no.N306145A1) retails for about $23from Case-IH and bolts rightonto the original Deere arm (notethat this is the firming wheelwe’re talking about, not the clos-ing wheel). When looking toimprove the performance of thesedrills, this is one of the first modi-fications that should be made—seed-to-soil contact is just toocritical to leave to chance.

Performance Boost for JD 750-type Drills(also 1850 and 1560/1860 models)

Editors’ Note: Of all the permu-tations being studied of variousfertilizer ratios in this or thatplacement or timing, the consis-tent take-home message is thathigh amounts of N fertilizerplaced in a concentrated zoneneed time to ‘temper’ to preventroot burning and poor uptakeearly in the season. If highamounts of N are placed ‘2x2’then some of the phosphorousneeds to be somewhere else (likein the seed furrow) since thecrop needs this very early andcan’t access it in the ‘hot’ zonewith all the ammoniacal N.Similarly, studies often show thedesirability of having the sepa-rate starter opener as close aspossible to the seed furrow butyet a safe distance from the seed(which depends on amountapplied, soil conditions, etc.) —but neglect the possibility ofputting a reasonably safeamount (mostly P) in the seedfurrow and putting the rest ofthe fertilizer several inches awayor b’cast. While pop-up and 3x0placement can produce dramatic

early growth differences, theyield advantage is often under-whelming—however, betterearly growth certainly improvescrop competition with weeds,which has value, and sometimesthe early nutrient availabilitydoes translate into significantyield advantages. The bestchoice will depend on pricing offert. sources, and equipment andlabor available.

Editors, Again: We beg to differwith Keith—the most importantpiece of equipment on your farm is the information proces-sor—your brain! If this deviceisn’t working properly, you’llnever get the other pieces ofsteel, plastic, and silica to workright. Keith’s brain appears to be functioning rather well,despite occasional head traumaover the years (too many moun-tain bike crashes).

Running Faster

Feature Farmer Craig Stehly ofMitchell, SD is always advancing,whether learning from others ordoing his own experiments on seed-ing equipment, cover crops, longerrotations, or whatever. The Stehlyfamily started no-till back in ’86 andwas 100% by 1990, with currentrotations including stacked wheat inan area typified by corn >>soybeans.When it comes to management,Stehly leads the pack.

Finding a Way

In the heart of continuous wheat &plow country, Feature Farmer LesSims of Mulvane, KS converted100% to no-till in ’96 and “hasn’tlooked back.” Axing the tillage andadding crop diversity allowed Lesand son Fred to cover more acresand achieve their financial goals. Adie-hard number cruncher, organicgardener, and former Boeing engi-neer, Les Sims definitely isn’t afraidto think different!

Understand Your Weeds

While diverse rotations and low soildisturbance will reduce weed pres-sure substantially, we still rely onherbicides to give the crop anadvantage over the remainingweeds. Repeated use of a certainmethod for control will result inshifts in the target population, andthis certainly holds true for herbi-cides. So, are we creating resistantweeds, or was the tolerance alwaysthere and we simply culled out thesusceptible ones? Are some speciesinherently more likely to developresistance? What can be done?

Kansas No-Till Tour 2001

Many inquisitive no-tillers, research-ers, and agronomists joined theinaugural run of this Tour, and hadplenty to see and discuss. We’lltouch on all the highlights andinsights in the next issue.

Coming in the Next Issue!

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How Did We Get Here?A Brief History of Crops

by Matt Hagny

On the U.S. Plains, why do we grow red wheat but virtually nowhite wheat? Why is Kansas pre-dominantly wheat, but almost noother cool-season crops—peas,lentils, canola—are grown? Why dowe grow yellow corn instead ofwhite corn? Why are the cornhybrids commercially available inthe U.S. so poorly adapted to thesouthern Plains of the U.S., despitecorn being a C41 plant and originat-ing in the tropical mid-elevations ofwhat is now southern Mexico andGuatemala?

Most of the answers to these ques-tions are wrapped up in history, andare not necessarily the best indicatorof what can or cannot be grown in acertain location. I’m not denyingthat crops originated in certain cli-mates and tend to dothe best when grownunder somewhat simi-lar conditions. Butgenetics are quite mal-leable, and intensivebreeding efforts havecreated some highlydiverse characterswithin any single cropspecies. There arewheat types that sur-vive tough winters,what we call ‘winterwheats,’ that can sur-vive as far north asNorth Dakota, Mani-toba, and Saskatch-ewan in most years.Other types do notneed vernalization (theplant’s requirement ofcold temperatures to

reach reproductive phase) and willnot generally survive harsh winters,and these are called ‘spring wheats.’But no sharp line divides them, andmany wheats that are grown inplaces like Australia or Argentina aremostly in that grey area, with somecold tolerance but no real vernaliza-tion requirement. The variety‘Jagger’ is similar.

Then there are wheats that are veryquick to do their grain fill, such asall the varieties grown on the U.S.Plains. The reason is that they havebeen bred to finish quickly to avoidsubstantial yield loss from high tem-peratures (the same ‘Continental’climate features that produce ourcold winters also contribute to hotsummers, and a relatively shortspring separating them)—wheat

being a C3 plant with a maximalphotosynthetic rate occurring atabout 50˚F (10˚C). Wheat varietiesgrown in the Pacific NW, or inEngland, or in Australia, all havegenetics that take advantage of thevery mild winter and slow warm-upin those regions, which allows theplant to do grain filling over a verylong time, to produce and finish ahuge number of tillers per plantbefore it gets hot. Many of thoseareas produce very high yields ofwheat (easily 100 to 150 bu/a) andother winter cereals2. Needless tosay, the varieties grown in thoseareas would fare poorly in Kansas.In addition to growth habits, there isalso a wide variety of grain charac-ters amongst wheats, including notonly the soft and hard reds with

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The U.S. Plains wasn’t always monoculture wheat. What have we lost along with the crop diversity?

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1 There are two types of photosynthesis, referred to as C3 and C4, depending on the number of carbons in the sugar molecule produced. C4 plants, suchas corn, milo, sugarcane, and cotton, have tropical origins and generally are adapted to higher temperatures than C3 plants.

P E R S P E C T I V E

Matt Hagny is a consultingagronomist for no-till systems, based in Salina, KS

their different uses, but also whitewheats which are very importantworldwide. So we have this one sub-species of crop (common wheat, orTriticum aestivum ssp. vulgare) withall these different characteristics.

Corn is similar. We have single-crosshybrid seed available in the U.S. &Canada in everything from a 70-dayRM to a 124-day RM.3 (Note thatthese ‘Relative Maturities’ areindeed relative, as corn possessessome day-length sensitivity—inother words, moving a hybrid orinbred from south to north changesits maturity beyond what you wouldpredict just based on heat-unit accu-mulation.) Corn varieties grown insome areas of

Mexico and central America (thebirthplace of corn) have even longer maturities. Breeding effortscontinue to adapt corn to morenortherly climates, such as theextremely short-season (70-day)CanaMaize. And again, the variationisn’t confined to adaptability—wealso have lines with yellow grain andthose with white grain, not to men-tion flinty types, sweet corn, andpopcorn—again, all versions of justone species, Zea mays.

Could It Have BeenOtherwise?

So how did we ever end up withwheat that grows well in Kansas, orcorn that grows wellin Minnesota?Intensive breedingefforts. How did weget the intensivebreeding programs?By growing thecrop. Circular, isn’tit? A catch-22.Farmers must havegrown a crop over awide area to haveattracted the atten-tion of universitiesand private compa-nies to get themrolling on breedingprojects. Very fewbreeding projectsgarner much effortor support until thatcrop is common inthe area, desirableas it may seem to doit the other wayaround.

So how did we get to where we are?Mostly historical accident—in otherwords, luck. Somebody introduces acrop into an area not so dissimilarfrom where the seeds originated,and it grows well enough to captureeveryone’s fancy, and off you go:new crop in the area, farmers andlocal seed companies do some earlyselection work, new breeding pro-gram at the local land-grant college,more seed companies get involved,etc. The crop is now established ineveryone’s mind and the breeders’budgets, and people start thinking ofit as having always been there.

Sometimes the species (or variety)being introduced is hardly adaptedat all for that area, but perhaps dueto a lack of other cropping alterna-tives (and a lack of good transpor-

tation in the early days) the cropbecomes established in that area.Quite often the choice is deter-mined by cultural factors—everyonewas accustomed to eating that crop,and growing it, so the emigrantstook it with them and planted it intheir new colony, regardless of howpoorly it did in the new climate.After a few dozen generations ofmostly inadvertent selection (byplanting back the seeds of the plantsthat happened to be slightly betteradapted to the new climate thanwere the others in that seed lot), the yields often became halfway

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Catch-22: We don’t getintensive breeding efforts

until a crop is widelygrown in the area, but it isn’t grown because

available varieties aren’twell adapted.

Corn was once the predominant crop in Kansas and Oklahoma.After languishing for many decades, the crop is regainingimportance on the southern Plains.

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2Despite what Kansas vehicle tags have said for so long, Kansas really isn’t the wheat state—it’s a miracle the stuff grows here at all. Wheat was firstdomesticated in the Mediterranean climate of the Fertile Crescent, where Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey are today, and is better adapted to those extremelymild winters with a very gradual warm-up. Indeed, wild stands of these cereals (close cousins of our wheats) will typically yield grain of over 15 bu/a, allwithout an ounce of human effort or investment until the day of harvest!!

3Growing corn in North America is nothing new: the native peoples have been growing corn extensively in the U.S. for over 1,100 years, everywhere fromthe arid highlands of New Mexico & Colorado, to Ohio, to the Eastern seaboard. Archaeological evidence shows corn was grown in what is now Tennesseeand Ohio as early as 1,700 years ago. Dry beans and cucurbits were also common. Interestingly, some of our most problematic weeds—pigweeds andwaterhemp (Amaranthus spp.)—were also early domesticates grown for grain. (from Bruce Smith & Paul Minnis, 1992, in The Origins of Agriculture, ed. C.Wesley Cowan & Patty Jo Watson, Smithsonian Institutional Press.)

respectable. This is how wheat reallygot going in Kansas and Oklahoma:it became popular at a time whencorn (the prevalent crop in Kansasand Oklahoma back then, see chart)was faltering in a series of slightlydrier years and just when the soilwas losing its ability to sup-port corn due to

the loss of OM following 30 to 40years of tillage. Wheat and otherwinter cereals were truly minorplayers up until then, with Okla-homa having ten times more acres

in corn than wheat as recently as thelate 1890s. Perhaps an indicator ofhow poorly it was suited to the cli-mate, wheat was first introduced toN. America quite early by theSpanish settlers but never reallycaught on. The introduction of the‘Turkey Red’ wheat variety by theMennonites came at just the righttime and circumstances to catchhold.

In another historical accident, soy-beans were first introduced to theU.S. as a forage that was easier tomanage than cowpeas (less vining,more erect plants worked betterwith existing haying equipment).Only later were soybeans bred forgrain, due in large part to certainpeople, such as Henry Ford, cham-pioning their cause (although thegrain of soybean had long been har-

vested in their homeland of SEAsia)—the corn >>soybean rotationof the U.S. Corn Belt almost wasn’t.

Back to the Future

Look at how acres have shifted inKansas & Oklahoma, from consider-able diversity to a preponderance ofwheat (see chart). The charts don’tcapture all the swings over the years:in the 1890s, Oklahoma was growing2.5 to 3.0 million acres of corn, butonly a few hundred-thousand eachof wheat and oats. The big shift towheat occurred from 1910 to 1920.The trends are shifting again, has-tened by the less-restrictive ‘96 U.S.Farm Bill and recent increasedadoption of no-till: dryland cornacreage in Kansas has rebounded,and soybeans are gaining popularity.Recent ‘discoveries’ of cotton, spring

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The trick is to find reason-ably well-adapted crop

species from distant landsand import them but not

the bugs.

Kansas Crop Acreage

1910 1998

Corn 8,600,000 3,000,000^

Alfalfa 900,000 1,000,000

Soybeans 0** 2,500,000

Sorghum/kafir 1,200,000 3,400,000

Oats 1,700,000 100,000

Barley 300,000 0

Flax 100,000 0

Spring Wheat 100,000 0

Winter Wheat 4,800,000 10,100,000

Source: Ks. Ag. Stats. Service

————

^ Corn acreage would have fallen even more dramaticallyduring these years were it not for the widespreadadoption of irrigation in the western part of the stateduring this timeframe.

**No data. Some were grown for hay during those years,but generally not for grain.

Source: Okla. Ag. Statistics Service

Note: all acreages rounded to nearest hundred-thousand;if ‘0’ then less than 50,000 acres.

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* from 1919 (first year alfalfa data recorded).

**No data. Some were grown for hay during those years,but generally not for grain.

Oklahoma Crop Acreage (Harvested)

1909 1997

Corn 5,900,000 200,000

Cotton 2,000,000 200,000

Alfalfa 400,000* 400,000

Soybeans 0** 300,000

Sorghum/kafir 500,000 500,000

Oats 600,000 0

Wheat 1,200,000 5,400,000

Where Do We Go from Here?

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wheat, and cowpeas growing wellhere is nothing new; these cropswere rather common during the late1800s. In addition to the crops listedon the chart, records from the1870s and 1880s for Harvey andSedgwick counties (of KS) indicatethat many other crops were success-fully grown, including tobacco,castor beans, buckwheat, millet,timothy, clover, soybeans, and veg-etables.

Economics dictated much of theshifting away from this diversity,especially if we broadly define eco-nomics to include things like newtechnologies and the whims of poli-tics. Access to cheap transportduring the last century and a halfhas radically altered (expanded) agmarkets, and concentrated produc-tion in areas with competitiveadvantages.

Refrigeration also. On the interna-tional side, the export markets aredriven by such things as politics(inscrutable), currency exchangerates, and foreign supply & demand(again, subject to the vagaries ofhistory, such as population growth,food preferences, business climate,attitudes, and political stability). On

the more local level, input pricesand yields are sometimes dramati-cally changed by some new tech-nology, such as synthetic fertilizers,herbicides, mechanization sup-planting hand labor and horses,hybridization, etc. Subsidies andinsurance availability also play major roles. Many other factorsoften enter into the equation, oftenchalked up as wacky historical acci-dent—things like Ford’s fondnessfor soybeans, or a series of crop fail-ures or shortages due to weathercycles or pests, or a new consumertrend.

The crops grown in an area quiteoften aren’t native to that place —they’re brought in from some-where else. Usually the nativespecies, while very highly adaptedto the soils and climate, are also sus-ceptible to too many insects anddiseases already common in thatlocation.4 The trick is to find rea-sonably well-adapted species from

distant lands and import them butnot the bugs.5 Then let the breederswork at making the crop even betteradapted.

Genetic Sculpting

So, what might things look like, hadwe pursued breeding wheat linesfor Iowa and Illinois as zealously aswe did breeding corn for those con-ditions? And what if we hadn’tabandoned breeding corn for thesouthern Plains? Things might lookvery different (like, we would havecorn well adapted to Oklahoma &Kansas, and wheat might actually becommonplace in Illinois). And Iwould suggest that finding corn,soybean, and cotton genetics betteradapted to Kansas will do a lot morefor Kansas farmers than continuedover-emphasis on wheat breeding(and lots of the traits we’re fever-ishly breeding into wheat wouldn’teven be necessary if we had good

Genetics are very mal-leable, and plant selection(intentional or otherwise)works wonders at ‘fine-tuning’ a species to an

environment, so well thatwe often inadvertentlyselect against traits we

probably should be keeping.

Corn hybrids commercially available in the U.S. aren’t particularly well adapted to Kansasand Oklahoma, despite corn originating in southern Mexico—nearly all of the breedingwork done in the last century has focused on milder climates.

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4 Granted, the native species have also evolved many defenses against the native pests, but they also expend lots of precious resources for those defenses—resources we humans would prefer to divert to larger yields of grain, forage, or fiber.

5 While rather successful throughout agriculture’s recent history, there’s no guarantee that local pests won’t adapt, or old ones from the crop’s homelandwon’t accidentally get introduced. Despite the potato’s origin in the S. American highlands, and its phenomenally successful introduction into Europe, lateblight (Phytophthora infestans) devastated the European potato crop starting in 1841. Northern Europe, particularly Ireland, had experienced a human pop-ulation explosion as a result of the potato’s widespread adoption and had become heavily dependent on it to support the people. The devastation of thepotato crops during those years resulted in mass starvation, including over a million deaths in Ireland alone, and many millions emigrating to the U.S. (fromJack Harlan, 1995, The Living Fields, Cambridge Univ. Press.)

Most of you know something aboutproducing wheat and corn and mer-chandising the grain. In an attemptto regain diversity, many other cropsare being grown or tried that areless familiar, or were completelyunheard of until recently, and so theconfusion sometimes runs deep.While a far cry from a completeagronomic reference, here are someof the basics on just a few of these‘new’ crops:

Chickpeas (Cicer arietina) a.k.a.garbanzo beans: b-lf legume, plantedearly (earlier than corn) and ripenshortly after wheat (originated in theMediterranean climate of the‘Fertile Crescent,’ wild relatives ofchickpea occur only in SE Turkey),tolerate dry weather and high-pHsoils, grain targets human-ediblemarket and requires certain color

and size to capture the $ premiums(different requirements for ‘kabuli’and ‘desi’ types), rainy weather atmaturity results in discolored grainsuitable only for livestock, seed costshigh, considered a ‘veggie’ under the‘96 U.S. Farm Bill (can only be har-vested for grain on non-base acres).

Dry beans or field beans(Phaseolus spp.): b-lf legume, widearray of types and varieties with dif-ferent markets and growth habits(tepary, lima, pinto, navy, red kidney,Black Turtle, G. Northern), graintargets human-edible market, manytypes adapted to warm dry condi-tions, native and longtime domesti-cate of Central and S. America.

Canadian field peas (Pisum sativa)a.k.a. spring peas: b-lf legume,planted very early (like oats or

spring wheat) and mature about thesame time as wheat (like wheat, peasare another ‘Fertile Crescent’Mediterranean native), need to fin-ish before hot weather for goodyields, can be harvested for grain forlivestock or as a forage.

Austrian winter peas (Pisumsativa): planted in the fall (like win-ter wheat), used primarily for acover crop in this part of the world,seed costs rather high, very limitedtime available in the fall when tem-peratures are conducive to growth,spring regrowth slow—perhaps dueto winter injury.

Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata): b-lflegume, tropical in nature (native tocentral African savanna, Vigna genusalso thought to be native to SEAsia), need very warm soils for ger-

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Notes on ‘New’ Crops

rotations, and more no-till).Similarly, the folks in Illinois andOhio need improvement/develop-ment of wheat, alfalfa, industrialhemp or some other crop muchmore than they need improvementin soybeans and corn genetics. But,due to historical accident, they likelyaren’t going to get it anytime soon(or even realize what they don’t have).

There are several conclusions thatcan be drawn. First, the reason acrop is grown in an area probablyhas as much to do with historicalaccident as it does with that cropbeing intrinsically well-suited to thatlocation. Second, genetics are verymalleable, and plant selection andbreeding (intentional or otherwise)works wonders at ‘fine-tuning’ aspecies to an environment.6 In fact,

it works so well that we often inad-vertently select against traits weprobably should be keeping (butthat is a story for another day).Third, as we look

around for crops to diversify ourrotation, we should not be too easilydiscouraged if they aren’t an instantsuccess—accidentally getting theright variety for a locale is unlikelyright out of the gate, not to mentiongetting the agronomy halfway rightfor that crop. This is especially truewhen the new crop is put up againstcrops that have been bred for thearea for decades, if not centuries ormillennia, and for which the proper

agronomy is common knowledge.Along those same lines, ‘escaped’introduced plants sometimes reallytake hold and become problemweeds (e.g., kochia, ‘cheatgrass,’bindweed, Johnsongrass), but themajority of introductions are poorlyadapted and quickly die out (weonly notice the ones that don’t dieout). Fourth, there is historicalprecedent for great crop diversity inKS and Oklahoma, not just the win-ter wheat that so dominates ourthinking. And, even if there wasn’t aprecedent, we should be working ondiversifying our portfolio of cropsand our understanding of their placein a rotation. Nature is relentless intrying new variations, always search-ing the space of the possible. Naturenever stops looking for improve-ments, and neither should we.

6 Lest we get too proud of our breeding programs, Jack Harlan reports an experiment started by his father, H.V. Harlan, in 1928. He chose 28 diverse barleyvarieties out of his collection of 6,000 and crossed them in all possible combinations, for a total of 378 in the F2 generation, which were then mixed asevenly as possible and planted in an increase block, and eventually sent to several experiment stations to be grown year after year without any further(human) selecting. At UC Davis, it had been grown for over 60 generations by 1995. Yield improvements were dramatic during the early years, before set-tling down to more gradual increases. Most interestingly, yields kept pace with 95% of the best lines that barley breeders could achieve during that timewith deliberate breeding efforts. (Harlan, 1995.)

Nature is relentless in try-ing new variations.

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mination, often used as a foragealthough not palatable until pod-fill,grow much faster than soybeansunder hot dry conditions, grow wellin low-pH soils, were once rathercommon on the southern U.S. Plainsand many varieties exist with verydifferent maturities and viningpropensities, grain yields superior tosoybeans in tough hot dry environ-ments but considered a ‘veggie’under the ‘96 Farm Program (cow-peas are the same species as black-eyed peas). Mung beans (V. radiata)and adzuki beans are in the samegenus but have origins in SE Asia,human-edible market, mung beanstolerate warm dry conditions muchlike cowpeas.

Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea): b-lf legume, tropical in nature(native to India), needs very warmsoils like cowpeas or cotton, pri-marily used for a cover crop (many,but not all, varieties are poisonous tolivestock) and produces tremendousbiomass in a short time with hotweather and adequate moisture,suppresses weeds rather well, not atall closely related to industrial hemp(Cannabis sativa) or marijuana(‘hemp’ is a categorical word for tallfibrous plants, much like ‘cereal’encompasses diverse grass plantsharvested for grain), tolerates low-pH soils, needs cowpea-typeinoculant.

Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa): b-lflegume, cool-season (Fertile Cres-cent origins again), main use as acover crop that will overwinter(sometimes), won’t tolerate hightemperatures, stand establishmentsomewhat erratic. Many otherspecies and subspecies of vetchesare domesticated, bigflower vetch(V. grandiflora cv Woodford) report-edly is one of few more winter hardythan hairy vetch.

Lupins (Lupinus spp.): b-lf legume,most varieties need acidic soils,domesticated independently in theFertile Crescent and in S. America,

some Lupinus spp. also nativeto N. America.

Lentils (Lens culinaris): b-lflegume, cool-season habit(Fertile Crescent domesticate),primarily grain for human-edi-ble market, but seem to workwell as a cover crop when thinstands are grown amongst sun-flowers to prevent wind erosionafter ‘flower harvest (planted atthe same time as the ‘flowers).

Cotton, ‘upland’ type (Gossypiumhirsuta): non-legume b-lf, tropicaldomesticate (origins in lowlands ofCentral America & Caribbean,although the Gossypium genus isvery old and widespread worldwide).

Canola (Brassica napus): non-legume b-lf, oilseed, both winterhardy and spring types exist, preferscool temps. for maximum grainyields and reducing shattering, maybe useful as a cover crop due to lowseed costs and ability to fit intomany different seeding windows,also highly nematocidic (kills nema-todes), a host to white mold(Sclerotinia sclerotiorum), native ofSE Asia. The Brassica genus alsoincludes turnips, cabbage, kohlrabi,and broccoli, as well as the mustards.

Oilseed radish (Raphanus sativa):non-legume b-lf, same species asthe common radish, not so distantlyrelated to the Brassica genus.

Editors: The preceding notes areintended only as the briefest intro-duction. Enormous differences willoccur as to how varieties of any ofthese species respond to manage-ment, soils, and climate. Experi-mentation and caution are alwaysadvisable, although we seriouslydoubt many replicated studieswere conducted before wheat waswidely adopted on the U.S. Plains—whatever works, works.

CalendarJune 27Dakota Lakes Research Farm’s Annual Field Day

July 24Saline Co. (KS) No-Till Field Day, Ritchie Tarn Farm

August 5-7South Dakota No-Till Bus Tour

August 14Dickinson Co. (KS) No-Till Field Day

August 16Rice Co. (KS) No-Till Field Day

Cowpeas planted after wheat harvest. Cowpeaswere once rather common in eastern Kansas andMissouri, and produce high-quality hay.

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legume, or, at most, several relatedspecies of legume. For instance, theRhizobium for alfalfa does nothingto colonize soybean roots. Likewise,the Rhizobium for soybeans won’tcolonize cowpea roots. If a field hasnever had a particular Rhizobiumintroduced (and it isn’t native to thatlocale), then good inoculation isimperative—take no chances!

Without Rhizobial colonization, thelegume plants will be N def., and(predictably) slow growing and lowyielding. When planting a legumespecies for the first time in a field,get inoculants from a couple differ-ent suppliers to ensure that at leastone batch is viable (sometimes inoc-

When we started the SD No-TillTour in 1995, most of Kansans whotook the Tour were wide-eyed new-bies to the concept of no-till. At thattime, not many Kansans were evenremotely receptive to the idea, letalone trying any (although even backin ‘95 there were indeed a fewaround the state who had actuallybeen 100% no-till for several years).By 2001 the group was different.While we still had a high number ofthose just getting acquainted with

no-till (no surprise—no-till isn’tquite mainstream here, yet), therewere also significantly more whohad substantial no-till experience.Some exceptionally astute questionsand ideas flew back and forth theentire trip—we are not all rookiesanymore. It is a great deal of fun toassemble the more advanced no-tillers, the deep thinkers, to hashover successes, problems, solutions,and new ideas. We hope we neverstop improving.

While many of the crop input prod-ucts you handle during the year arerelatively simple and stable chemicalcompounds, inoculants actually con-tain living organisms—inoculants arehighly concentrated with specificstrains of Rhizobia bacteria in vari-ous carriers of liquids, peats,powders or granules to promotebacterial survival and ease of han-dling. For maximum legume yields,you want all of these helpful bacte-ria to survive until they are installedin the soil along with the seed.

Many Rhizobia species exist, andeach Rhizobium species typicallyforms symbiotic relations with onlyone particular species of host

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Inoculants Are Alive!

For legumes, having enough of the proper Rhizobium in the soil is important! This field ofsoybeans had a high-quality inoculant applied to the seed. However, the pale six-acre stripin the middle of photo had never been in soybeans previously; on either side, soybeanshad been grown once before—27 years earlier! (Forget what you’ve been told aboutRhizobia not living in the soil for more than a couple years.)

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ulant ishandledimproperlyduringshipping orstorage)—you needhighcounts ofviableRhizobiadeliveredto the soil,since it isdefinitely a ‘numbers game.’ Oncethe inoculant is in your possession,take care of it. High temperatureskill off inoculant quickly, as will sun-light. Mixing inoculants withchlorinated water is another goodway to kill all the Rhizobia—usewater from a well, or distilled.Thawing frozen inoculants in amicrowave oven is yet another wayto make them very dead. Someseed-applied fungicides are alsoextremely good at killing off yourinoculants. R.I.P.

Ray Ward checks thenodulation of sunnhemp during the ‘01 No-Till on the Plains KansasBus Tour.

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As with the 2000 Tour, this one went remarkably smoothly. Our firststop was Ward Laboratories inKearney, NE. After a tour of the soil lab, we ‘kidnapped’ the lab’sfounder, Ray Ward, and took himalong for the rest of the bus tour.Ward is very knowledgeable notonly in soil testing procedures, butalso in practical aspects of nutrientmanagement in no-till. We thor-oughly enjoyed his insights andsharp wit. At one point, while driv-

South Dakota No-Till Tour 2001by Matt Hagny

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ing through the irrigated corn andsoybeans of Nebraska, someoneasked what was the most limiting

factor for that area. Ward stood up,said one word: “Management,” andsat back down. Succinct andenlightening—Ward at his best.

Making It Work

The first farm stop was Steve &Todd Taylors’ near Presho, SD.Steve’s son, Todd, manages thefarming operation, although Steve isvery involved and knowledgeable.Taylors began no-tilling in 1988 andhave been 100% since ‘94. Undertillage-based farming, the surround-ing area was almost exclusively in awinter wheat >>summerfallow rota-tion, although lately w.wht >>corn(or milo) >>fallow has become pop-ular. Upon converting to no-till,Taylors also used this w.wht >>corn>>fallow program. A few years later,their rotation had become springwht >>w.wht >>corn >>sunflowers(the summerfallow was gone).‘Cheatgrass’ became a problem, andwet spring weather sometimesmade corn planting nearly impossi-ble in the heavy wheat stubble.Consequently, Taylors started put-ting proso millet into some of the‘stacked’ (2d-year) wheat stubble,and some of the corn now goeseither into millet stubble or sun-

flower stalks. Taylors are beginningto wonder if canola dormant-seeded(during the winter) into the wheatstubble would avoid the problem.Corn would then be planted intothe canola stubble. Taylors are alsodoing an oat/pea mix for hay, whichis an excellent transition to w.wheatfor their area. It is debatablewhether having the spring pea inwith the oats is desirable or not —the increase in hay value is mini-mal and there is some concern ofthe pea carrying some b-lf diseases.

One of the biggest problems Taylorsface is planting in the spring intotheir sticky clay soils (Promise clays

—some of the toughest anywhere).The planting window for summercropping is relatively short, and thespring is often rainy. The most fun-damental obstacle is simply gettingthe planting equipment to functionin such conditions—Todd can oftenget the tractor across the field, butthe mud packs into the opener andstops everything up. We kickedaround various ideas to remedy this,including using a gauge wheel madeof poly or brass that would betterresist the mud’s tendency to followthe opener blade out of the furrow(the wet clay adheres so tightly tothe blade that the soft rubber gaugetire lip is powerless to hold it down,

which then proceeds to pack insidethe gauge wheel, eventually stop-ping it, regardless of what scrapersare used or how tightly the gaugewheel is shimmed against theblade).

Taylors have also had a few prob-lems with sunflower stalks blowingduring fierce Chinook winds—thesituation is especially bad if the fieldhas been seeded to wheat, whichflattens the ‘flower stalks and results in the drill openers furtherloosening the soil surface. DwayneBeck seems to have solved this,however—more on this later.

Other than the issues mentioned,Taylors really like the reduced over-head and risk management affordedby no-till. Overhead is really low,with Todd getting over 4,500acres/year with 30’ of JD 750 drillsand a 12-row planter. They also doall their own harvesting and spray-ing (for many years, Todd did it allwith a 220 Spra-Coupe!). Their lowoverhead is made possible by theworkload spreading of diverse rota-tions. Taylors are more profitablewith no-till and say they will nevergo back to doing tillage.

The 7th annual SD No-Till Tour definitelygot us out in the field! Looking at long-term no-till production and research inSouth Dakota, the Tour’s participants werein various stages of no-till adoption inKansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Nebraska.

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Reinventing No-Till

After Taylors, we traveled to DakotaLakes’ West River rotational studyand did a quick walk-through. Thesite has been in 17 different rota-tions (in replicated plots) for 10years. As the wheat and other wintercrops had just been harvested andthe stubble not yet sprayed, wecould easily pick out big differencesin weed pressure, which was a directresult of the rotation used in thatplot. The short rotations were hav-ing trouble and in need of majorintervention (read: expensive tech-nology) to keep them fromcollapsing, although the ultra-low-disturbance methods were indeedhelping the situation by maximizingthe degradation of weed seeds lefton the surface—viability is quicklylost by predation, decomposition,etc., when left on top. Taking a lookat the yield and profitability datafrom the W. River site confirms theneed for long rotations.

The corn was looking quite goodthis year at the W. River site—amaz-ing what 10 years of no-till had doneto change the soil there. On pasttours, we have sometimes comparedthe soils and crops of thissite with adja-

cent fields under tillage regimes—the differences were shocking.

The next day, we spent the morningand early afternoon with DwayneBeck at Dakota Lakes’ Main Site (E.River) touring the rotational studies(yields and costs for each rotationare available at dakotalakes.com).Both irrigation and dryland blocksare included at this site. Beck intro-duced nightcrawlers to the irrigated

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portion of the farm back in ‘91, andthese have colonized the soils verywell, forming many vertical burrowsthat extend about 4 feet down.These burrows, along with no-till,have radically changed the charac-teristics of that soil: we walked inimmediately behind a lateral-moveirrigator that had just applied 3inches of water less than 5 minutesearlier—we came out of the fieldwithout a trace of soil stickingto our shoes!

On the irrigated side, we looked atBeck’s Japanese millet seeded a cou-ple days prior, right after the wheatwas harvested in the field (centralSD is pretty far north for double-cropping). This millet was eventuallytaken for hay, and the field will go tosoybeans next year.

On the dryland side of the researchfarm, we looked at a variety ofcrops, including chickpeas awaitingharvest. In the sunflowers, weobserved a sparse scattering oflentils amongst the ‘flowers; thelentils don’t really compete with the‘flowers, but do serve to protect thefield from strong winds during thewinter, since the bushy lentil isn’tnearly so fragile as the ‘flower stalks(a simple, elegant solution, eh?). Wealso walked out into a plot that hasnever been tilled, originally a cornerof the farm thought too steep andtoo thin of a soil to be used for crop-ping. Beck killed the native sodchemically in the mid-90s and hasbeen cropping it ever since. Weadmired the feel and smell of thesoil in this plot (Ward had hisbeloved spade along), which was stillremarkably different and better thanthe adjacent plots that had been inno-till for only 10 years. Yields, too,are dramatically better on this ten-thousand-year no-till plot, even

though it was once considered toopoor a soil to even be farmed (and itis a north-facing slope, to boot). Toanswer the question of how long ittakes for soils to recover productivityunder good no-till management:more than 10 years. (And these SDsoils were hardly the most abusedsoils in the world while under atillage regime.)

We also looked at Beck’s ConceptSeeder, which had undergone majorsurgery yet again (I’ve been watch-ing it morph for 5 years now). Mostof the changes lately have been tothe opener. Each seed opener nowhas its own parallel link and its ownhydraulic down-pressure cylinder,with a dedicated fertilizer openerattached directly to the front of eachseed opener. A single-wheel residuemanager rides between the fert.opener and the seed opener. Theseed opener is a single 18-in. bladeat 5-degrees, with a 3-in. gaugewheel alongside. The boot (seed-tube guard) was fashioned from aFlexi-coil FSO seed boot and is nar-row enough to stay in the ‘shadow’of the blade. A narrow verticalwheel (from an SDX) runs in-furrowto firm the seed into the bottom ofthe ‘v,’ followed by a depth-limitedspoked closing wheel that shattersthe sidewall. After witnessing all thepermutations over the years, I thinkthis one is really really close; Iexpect it’s only a matter of timebefore some of these design ele-ments come to market (we’re

Longtime no-till producer Steve Taylor dis-cusses dryland corn production at his farmnorth of Presho, SD.

Steve & Todd Taylor reallylike the reduced overheadand the risk managementafforded by no-till. Profits

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Yield and profit data fromDakota Lakes confirm theneed for long rotations.

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already seeing a couple manufactur-ers adopting the bridge-frame idea).

Building on Success

After a quick stop at Dakota Lakes’new North Unit (which will replacethe W. River site), we set out forRalph Holzwarth’s farm nearGettysburg. Ralph’s soils are glaciatedand considerably nicer to work withthan Taylors’ area (but pricedaccordingly). We admired Ralph’scorn, which was looking really nice.(He always has nice corn—Ralphhas been a Tour stop 6 out of 7years. Thanks, Ralph!) Ralph hasbeen 100% no-till since 1992, andhis rotation during much of this timehas been spring wht >>w.wht>>corn >>sunflower (or soybean).Occasionally he adds some prosomillet. The 50% wheat in the rota-tional plan of 2-in/2-out worked fora few years, but Ralph reportsincreasing problems with ‘cheat-grass’ and is moving towardlengthening the break betweenwheat crops, probably by doing corntwo years in a row. (I had askedRalph several years earlier if hewould ever consider doing ‘stacked’corn, to which he replied that hedidn’t have enough moisture, so itwas interesting that he was now will-ing to try it.) Someone also broughtup the possibility of expanding rota-tions with an oat/pea mix for hay,which Ralph thought had merit: theoats or oat/pea mix would follow hissunflowers or soybeans, and wouldnicely transition to wheat. Ralphnoted that back in the early ‘90s heusually had at least one field of oatssomewhere, and that the wheat afterthe oats always was some of his best.Ralph also discussed the success hewas having with split applications ofN on his wheat, sometimes boostingyields by 20 bu/a versus having thetotal applied in a single early appli-cation (Ralph’s research methods arevery good, and he claims the onlyproblem with GPS-based yield map-ping is that “you go crazy testing all

these different things”). He uses astream bar on his sprayer to applyliquid N in the wheat.

Ralph is having good success withsoybeans in the rotation, a crop thatwas almost unheard in his area a fewyears ago. One of the problemsthey’ve encountered is getting suffi-cient loads of Rhizobia out in fieldsthat have never seen a soybeanbefore. He’s been using a higherpriced granular inoculant in his JD1860 air drill, which seems to helpovercome this problem. While wewere discussing these things out inRalph’s soybean field, Ray Ward wasbusy digging to examine root devel-opment. Apparently we talked toolong, as Ward soon had dug a pitworthy of a backhoe!

We next stopped at Ralph’s head-quarters to look at machinery.Ralph’s management style can besummed up as ‘keep it simple’—yes,he looks carefully at all the details,and is very willing to do the extras ifthe financial rewards are there. But,in Ralph’s opinion, too much of thatstuff is just extra “goofing around,”and he sees bigger rewards from

pushing his existing machinery a lit-tle farther, or putting extra effortinto crunching his financial num-bers. This attitudecarries over

into machinery purchases. In Ralph’swords, “I want to go to the localdealer, get what I need, and getback to work.” He runs a stock 1860,and a 16-row Deere planter that isstock except for residue managers,Keetons, spoked closing wheels, andliquid fertilizer (the planter is actu-ally owned by Jim, who works forRalph as well as farming his ownacres—they have a unique businessarrangement spanning decades).Ralph recently bought a used Patriotself-propelled sprayer (he ran a pull-type Flexi-coil before). Ralph has asemi-trailer dedicated to tending thesprayer, designed and plumbed forefficiency at mixing and filling.

Gillens: Pushing the Envelope

The next morning came too soon forthose of us who carried on discus-sions late into the night at the bar inPierre, but we piled on the bus andheaded for Dave and Carol Gillen’sat White Lake, SD. Gillens havebeen 100% no-till for 10 years now,and have expanded their acreageconsiderably in the last few years.Gillens are in an area of niceglaciated soils and higher rainfallthan either Gettysburg or Pierre;their area is on the western edge ofthe traditional corn >>soybeanregion. Gillens keep wheat in therotation, however, although they are

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Dwayne Beck opens our eyes at DakotaLakes Research Farm (E. River).

Dave & Carol Gillen do agood job of structuring

rotations with short-break/long-break

characteristics, which willpreserve and enhance thepower of their rotations.

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reconsidering the stacked wheat thatthey’ve been doing in recent years.Gillens are trying to find a covercrop to use some of the extra mois-ture when going from wheat to corn,which would make the stackedwheat more workable for them.They have been working with hairyvetch, with some success, seeded afew weeks after wheat harvest andsurviving until it is sprayed out atcorn planting. This year, they alsotried sunn hemp and sunflowers forcover crops (planted a few days afterwe left), although neither will over-winter. After wheat, they either gocorn >>corn >>soybean >>soybean,or they’ll go corn >>soybeans>>corn >>soybeans (their climate iscool enough that corn on soybeanstubble is workable). Gillens do agood job of structuring rotationswith short-break/long-break charac-teristics, which will preserve andenhance the power of their rotations.

Dave was lamenting the lost yieldpotential on his corn, which hadless than an inch of rain since thefirst of June (seedling stage). Itlooked tremendous to those of usfrom central Kansas, where every-thing was already burned up in oneof the hottest driest Julys ever.Gillens had lost half their potential,certainly, but it still looked wonder-ful. As we immersed ourselves inthe field, Ward shucked an ear ofcorn, then pointed to the ‘tippingback’ at the end of the ear and askedme very solemnly what caused that.I answered “Drought,” wondering tomyself where he was going with thisinquiry, when Ward said, “No, thecob’s too long.” We got a laugh outof that, and then I off-handedly saidthat his answer was a tautology.Ward asked what that meant, and Iexplained that it was a self-referenc-ing statement, one that is true bydefinition, to which he smiled andchided my fancy word: “Back in myday, the word ‘redundant’ was plentydamn good enough!”

Dave later reported that they’d hadno rain after we left, either, and thecorn still averaged 97 bu/a and thebeans about 25. He also mentionedthe long-term no-till fields yieldedbetter, as did the ones with wheat inthe rotation.

Gillens’ corn is on 22-inch spacingput in with a White 6000-series

planter. In contrast to Holzwarth,Gillens have no qualms about modi-fying their machinery to gain a littleadvantage. Among other things,they have cut holes in the gaugewheel rims on the planter to let themud escape. Their other equipmentis a 750 drill (modified) and aRoGator (they do custom spraying)—once again we find that overheadis astonishingly low per acre covered.

The long journey back to Kansasgave us many opportunities to hashover what we had seen. A pleasantaddition to the trip was Allen andYvonne Postlethwaite, from St.Arnaud, Victoria, Australia, wherethey operate a sizeable croppingenterprise that has been underzero-tillage for 19 years. Togetherwith two of their sons, they run avery successful operation (I’ve beento their farm). The Postlethwaiteshappened to be in SD at the sametime as us, and arranged to join ourtour and to travel to Kansas with us.On the way, Allen described to ushow they got started with no-till,and the changes that have takenplace since that time. It is interest-ing that regardless of soils orclimate, no-till and good rotationscarry the day.

And so our entourage arrived backin Salina, rather weary but alsohighly intrigued as to how we wouldmake use of so many new ideas wehad acquired in just 3 days.

Editors’ Note: The Epilogue of the2000 SD Tour is available atwww.notill.org.

Beck’s Concept Seeder, the ‘01 version(changes every year, but the mutationshave been converging on this design forsome time now). Each single-disc seedopener has its own residue manager andfertilizer opener, and each seed openersub-frame has its own parallel-link andhydraulic down-pressure cylinder. Nowthat’s precise seeding.

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Concept Seeder, firming and closing.

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Ralph Holzwarth fields questions on hisspraying equipment.

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*Originally presented at the SD No-till Association’s 2001 Conference atAberdeen, SD and included in thoseproceedings (edited here).

The presentations I make are nor-mally focused strongly on techniquesused to improve crop rotations andother components of diverse no-tillsystems—all of this material can befound at our website (www.dakota-lakes.com). In this presentation, Iwill attempt to share our thoughtson another recurring question: whythe Dakota Lakes Research Farmhas put so much emphasis on devel-oping the systems approach andwhat it tells us about the future.

The track record of meteorologistsand stock pickers in the last yeardemonstrates the danger of prognos-tication. Consequently, readersshould interpret the contents of thispaper with a great deal of skepti-cism. The author reserves the rightto be wrong (and hopes you forget).He also hopes to have the ability togloat if some of this material isprophetic.

The Systems Approach

The terms ‘system,’ ‘systemsapproach,’ ‘holistic management,’etc., have become quite popular

during the last few years. This signi-fies an increasing awareness thatmanagement decisions and policytechniques need to be based on abroader perspective than has beencommon in the past. This awarenesshas developed as the result of con-tinued frustration when seeminglygood management decisions andsound policy lead to totally unex-pected consequences. The logic isthat, if seemingly good decisionsconsistently lead to bad or unantici-pated consequences, either thedecision makers are incredibly stu-pid or the techniques used areflawed. Maybe there is a little ofboth involved.

Being aware that approaches used inthe past have problems does notprovide solutions to those problemsor even indicate where the methodswere flawed. And simply espousingthe need to use a systems or holisticapproach does not indicate how itshould be done. Similarly, when it isstated that a systems approach hasbeen used, this does not necessarilymean that it has been used correctly.

The validity of decisions made usinga systems approach must (by defini-tion) be based on evaluation of theimpacts these decisions have on thecomponents of the system and the

system as a whole.Several excellent textsare available outliningthis way of thinkingand how it is devel-oped and imple-mented; this paperwill not try to com-pete with them inproviding the basics.However, since mostof these have not

specifically focused on issues sur-rounding crop production or no-till,we will attempt to apply some sys-tems analysis techniques to pre-dicting what the future holds instore.

Basic Premises

Before making any predictions it isimportant to outline some basic‘principles’ upon which they will bebuilt. Obviously, if these are not cor-rect the predictions will be flawed.

Perception is reality. It is not certainthat the ‘real truth’ ever triumphedover ‘perceived truth’ other than inold movies. There is no reason toexpect this to

change in the future. In fact, as thecomplexity of issues increases (e.g.,global warming, carbon sequestra-tion) it becomes difficult for eventhe knowledgeable well-intentionedindividuals to agree on what is thetruth. This is complicated even moreby the willingness and ability of spe-cial interest groups to impact publicperceptions. Consequently, evenwhen the truth is known, it isn’timportant unless efforts are made toassure public perceptions are thesame.

No one has your best interests inmind except you. It is very commonfor politicians, bankers, governmentagencies (CES, NRCS, USDA-ARS,

Systems Approach to No-till in the Future*by Dwayne Beck

Commodities or products? —some insights.

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Even when the truth isknown, it isn’t important

unless efforts are made toassure public perceptions

are the same.

P E R S P E C T I V E

Dwayne Beck is manager of Dakota Lakes Research Farm at Pierre, SD.

ABS), and company representativesto infer that they have your bestinterests in mind. They (includingme) lie. They (we) have your bestinterests in mind only if your inter-ests happen to coincide with theirs(ours). This should not surprise you.It does not make them immoral orunethical. Their first responsibilityis, as it should be, to themselves andtheir organization. Your first respon-sibility should be to yourself andyour family or organization. Howmany times have you bought agchemicals, fertilizers, or machinerybecause it would be good for JohnDeere, Monsanto, or the Co-op?Never. Why should they be any dif-ferent?

It’s the Economy, Stupid. The lawsof economics, like the laws ofnature, work exceptionally well.Economic systems, like natural sys-tems, will shift to relieve or offset astimulus applied to them in a consis-tent and predictable manner. Agri-cultural subsidies and import tariffseventually become capitalized intothe price of land and other agricul-tural inputs—they then becomesubsidies to landowners and majorcorporations, not to crop producers.If (when) the subsidy or import tar-iff is removed, the producers findthemselves in dire economic straitsuntil land and input prices respondto the new reality (U.S. sugar beetproducers are an example). Simi-larly, excessive taxes and regulationon ag production would eventuallylead to lower land prices, as well asreducing production by causingfewer inputs to be used.

Improved methods or new technolo-gies are only an economic advantageuntil the newfound efficiency is cap-italized into the price of land andother production inputs. After thishappens the new techniquesbecome necessities. No-till hasraised (or will raise) the price ofland in South Dakota to a pointhigher than it would have beenwithout this technique. Established

farmers who own a substantial landbase can continue to operate andeven expand without using no-tillbecause they do not have to pay fullland costs on all their acres. Newproducers will not be able to cashflow land purchases without usingno-till or some other production sys-tem that gives them an advantageover traditional techniques.

Similarly, developing an improvedproduct that commands a higherprice from the buyer is only impor-tant until others also develop thesame or similar products. Then itbecomes a necessity to provide theimproved product (it is no longerpossible to sell the unimprovedproduct). An example is farmmachinery. How many people wouldbuy a tractor withoutpower steering?

A few of us remember when powersteering, cabs, air conditioners, etc.,were innovations.

Adding value starts with low-costinputs. The ultimate consumer ofagricultural products is becomingmuch less concerned about the costof the finished product and moreinterested in perceived value. If youdon’t believe this, go shopping withmy wife. Convenience, consistency,food safety, wholesomeness, andother factors have become muchmore important than price.Processors of agricultural goods areinterested in buying quality rawmaterials (inputs) as cheaply as pos-sible so they can maximize their

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profits. (You do the same thing:when was the last time you offeredto pay more than theco-op was

asking for fertilizer in order toassure they were making enoughmoney?) Owning processing capa-bilities will only be important if youcreate a ‘valuable’ product from rawmaterial produced in an efficientlow-cost manner. In other words,farmer-owned processors must beas efficient as privately owned ones.This means obtaining the raw mate-rial at competitive prices. Trying tomake up production deficiencies byadding value in processing will notwork.

There are no miracles. We are notgoing to get rich producing drugsand pharmaceuticals. The quantityneeded is too small. The require-ments will be too high. And thevalue will be capitalized into landcosts in the area where the compa-nies choose to grow the product.

Carbon sequestration paymentspresent more potential problemsthan promises. Even if other coun-tries agree to allow use of thisapproach, the only people who willmake substantial amounts of moneyfrom it will be lawyers, bureaucrats,and land owners. It will becomeanother subsidy. It will be almostimpossible to administer fairly. Itwill focus attention on other green-house gasses released by agriculture(ammonia, nitrous oxides, etc.). Itwill produce more regulation. Wewill have difficulty being competi-tive with other areas of the world(and U.S.) in sequestering carbon.

Farmer-owned processorsmust be as efficient as pri-vately owned ones. Thismeans obtaining the rawmaterial at competitive

prices. Trying to make upproduction deficiencies byadding value in processing

will not work.

There are no miracles. Weare not going to get richgrowing pharmaceuticals,or with carbon sequestra-tion payments, or other

blanket subsidies.

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Agricultural production isn’t impor-tant. Politicians (including those thatrun farm organizations and lobbyinggroups) like to tell farmers they areimportant because they feed andclothe the world. That is true, butnobody cares. If you didn’t do it,someone else would be happy totake your place. From an economicstandpoint, production of raw agri-cultural products is almost irrelevant.Bill Gates’ net worth exceeds thetotal value of agricultural productionin the United States many timesover (not as many times today as itwas a year ago, but it still is manytimes).

Agriculture is important econom-ically in terms of the amount ofvalue generated by the final prod-uct, not the raw material. Agri-culture is important in how itimpacts the environment. This is notso obvious in sparsely populatedSouth Dakota, but the fact thatmuch of the legislation affecting agproducers is passed more on envi-ronmental grounds than on socialand economic concerns should serveas our wake-up call.

The Future

Technology will be a tool, not a solu-tion. Technology has often beenused to treat symptoms that shouldnot occur in properly designed agri-cultural systems. In other words,technology has been used to replacemanagement and cultural practicesrather than augmenting them. In thefuture, technology for food produc-tion will become more expensiveboth in economic costs and alsofrom a public relations standpoint.This does not mean that technologywill not be used, but rather that itwill become increasingly importantto be sure that it is used appropri-ately: to increase the value of theproduct to the consumer, not toreduce the cost. Remember, the costis not important to the consumer.

The technology that will probablyhave the largest impact on agricul-ture may be in the electronic sector,not the biological sciences. Thisdoes not mean that biological tech-nology will not be important butrather that the ability to marketdirectly to consumers using theInternet, the capability to manage

inputs accurately ona site-specific basis,and other electroni-cally based technol-ogies may allow us toutilize the biologicaltechnology to its fullpotential.

Commodities versusproducts. Somefarmers will continueto produce commodi-ties. Producing thesecommodities at thelowest possible pricewill continue to bethe driving force forthese people. Thismeans they will needto be extremely effi-cient. Appropriatefarm size, crop diver-sity, technology, etc.,

all play a role in that equation.Other growers will focus on makingproducts that have enhanced valueto the targeted consumer. This valuewill be gained as much by how theraw material is produced as how it isprocessed. Organic

farmers have done an excellent jobof convincing some consumers thattheir method of production is betterfor the environment and results in ahealthier product. Both of theseperceptions are wrong, but sinceperception is reality, they can com-mand a higher price for theirproducts. No-till farmers need tocapitalize on the environmental ben-efits provided by using diverseno-till systems by selling that valueto the consumer. Carbon sequestra-tion could be part of this value. Thisapproach means the grower gathersthe increased value because it isgained by management and sales-manship not by blanket subsidy.

The bottom line is that farmers needto take control of their own destinyrather than waiting for others to cre-ate this destiny for them. Value-added co-ops are a small step in thatdirection. They are not an end but ameans. They provide sufficient criti-cal mass to allow producers tocompete with large multi-nationalcorporations. This does not meanthey allow producers to use ineffi-cient production practices. Ifproduction is not efficient the rawmaterial will cost too much and theco-op will not be competitive.

Carbon credits and environmental incentive payments may notbe in the best interests of producers, but no-till farmers arestill well positioned to grow crops very efficiently, and may beable to convince consumers to pay a premium for food grownin this more wholesome and environmentally friendly way.

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Farmers need to take con-trol of their own destinyrather than waiting for

others to create this des-tiny for them, not just inmarketing their products

and shaping public percep-tion, but also in funding

research.

Also, producing products designedto sell into a subsidized market(sugar, ethanol, etc.) contains sub-stantial risks.

Farmers also need to take a largerrole in funding research. Researchconducted by private industry isdesigned to serve their interests.Research at public institutions isdesigned to serve the public good.What is perceived as public goodmay not be good for the producer.Similarly, the research funded bycommodity groups (corn, soybean,wheat, etc.) is important for thatcommodity, but generally is notfocused on systems impacts. Gettingthe research you need may meanfunding or doing it yourself.

but Swanson is a leader, not a fol-lower.

Swanson’s willingness to break fromthe “herd mentality” shows up in hisearly experimentation and eventualadoption of no-till. “We flirted withno-till in the ‘70s with a modified IHCyclo planter . . . but we didn’t havethe knowledge base we do now, andthe cost of herbicides was not asfavorable.” Through the years, Joehas tried not to do any more tillagethan necessary,

using whatever implements andmethods were available. “We had anew piece of tillage equipment thatleft all of the residue on the soil sur-face but severed the plant from itsroots. Soon after the tillage trip wehad a four-inch rain and had a largeamount of soil erode off the field.”After this incident, Joe’s goal was100% permanent no-till, which heachieved starting in ‘97.

That’s not to say that convertingfields from many years of tillageabuse to a healthier system is easy.“There’s a hump to get over,” Joeobserves. Not only is the soil biologytrying to adapt to a radically differ-ent system, but also the farmmanager is doing very unfamiliarthings and often is unsure of evenwhat questions to ask. “We take forgranted the knowledge we nowhave. Once you get to a level ofknowledge, it becomes a ‘no-brainer’—but it takes a while to get there.”And during the first part of thechange, the urge to do tillage is con-

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The Laws of Nature andEconomics Will Not Change

This is the prediction that I knowwill be true: economic and naturallaws will not change. In the past,much effort has been put into tryingto change these laws rather than onunderstanding how they work andhow we can use this to our advan-tage. If we continue to try to changehow these laws work through tech-nology and legislation, we willcontinue to fail. If, on the otherhand, we concede that we (and ourfarming operations) are not inde-pendent entities but rather only apart of the system, then we canbegin the process of developing a

No-Till Renaissanceby Roger Long

“We use only 30% of thefuel we used in conven-

tional-till, and 50% of theiron. My machinery over-head is now only $35 peracre [no harvesting equip-ment], so I get all of the

cost savings while increasing yields.”

niche for our operation. Not everyorganism in an ecosystem occupiesthe same niche—quite the contrary:each strives to find the thing it cando better than other organisms. No-till farmers need to do that. I do nothave to list the things we do better.Other speakers at this conferencehave done that. What we need to dois to focus on taking full advantageof those strengths. The increasingenvironmental awareness, escalatingenergy and fertilizer prices, etc.,position us very well to take advan-tage of the power presented bysound no-till systems.

When talking with Windom, KSfarmer Joe Swan-son, it is evidentthat he has a highlevel of commit-ment to doing

what is right. From building soilquality and doing everything in hispower to eliminate erosion, to pro-viding a better habitat for wildlife,to promoting economically andenvironmentally responsible farmlegislation, Joe is not afraid to speakout for his beliefs and passions.Referring to tillage and monocul-ture, “We just can’t keep doing whatwe’ve always done. It’s killing oursoils and it’s bad for rural America.”On U.S. farm policy: “One of thebiggest obstacles to no-till right nowis our Farm Bill. Instead of the pro-gram promoting environmentallysound practices, it encourages agrower to keep doing whatever hehas been doing!” This view may bedifferent than his peers’ philosophy

FE

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develop but arejust as evident.“We had a fieldthat was wheatand double-cropped tosunflowers, halfwas no-till forfive years andhalf was no-tilled for nineyears. The halfthat was no-tillfor nine yearsyielded 300pounds peracre better than

the five-year no-till [although the 9-yr side was a more eroded, thinnersoil prior to going into no-till]. Weare seeing yield increases from longterm no-till.”

Joe: Steady At the Helm

Many growers see the only way tobring CRP back into crop produc-tion is through tillage or burning orboth—the attitude is generally:when in doubt, do more tillage. Joesaw a better way, and has twice con-verted established CRP fields tocropping without burning or tilling.Joe drills Roundup Ready soybeansdirectly into the CRP, doing nothingto prepare the field other than

applyingRoundup for aburndown atplanting. Hismost successfulkill of warm-season grasses,including littlebluestem, hasbeen with a sin-gle applicationof Roundup +Select in thesoybeans. Inconverting oneof the CRPfields, he firstwent with twoyears of soy-

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stant, like an addict’s strong cravingswhile trying to kick the habit.

But when you “get there,” numerousbenefits accrue. A devout outdoors-man, Joe likes the benefits no-tillaffords his game bird population,“We counted 9 coveys of quail onthe fields that we farm—that’s in areally down quail year!” But it is theeconomics of no-till that pays thebills and Swanson is quick to pointout those positives as well: “We useonly 30% of the fuel we used in con-ventional-till, and 50% of the iron.My machinery overhead is now only$35 per acre [no harvesting equip-ment], so I get all of the cost savingswhile increasing yields.” Some eco-nomic advantages take longer to

beans, then wheat (yielding 70 bu/a)and then double-crop sunflowers,which were harvested in the fall of2001: “We harvested 1,450 poundsper acre of sunflowers in a toughsunflower year.” Joe also notes thatthe fields are smooth after the grassclumps decomposed, “After twoyears of soybeans, there wasn’t agreat deal of residue left.”

Joe’s understanding of the impor-tance of crop diversity in a produc-tive no-till system has led him toexplore a wide array of cash crops.Joe has long had milo inhis rotation, and

was one of the first in the area togrow soybeans (long before he con-verted to permanent no-till). He hastried cotton, among others. His cur-rent rotation is generally corn>>corn >>soybean >>wht/dc flow-ers, although sometimes two yearsof milo is substituted for the corn.Joe has done some ‘stacking’ of soy-beans on several occasions, and alsostacked wheat; he is moving towarddoing more stacking of these crops.In addition to double-crop flowers,he’s also done milo and soybeans asdouble-crops.

Corn has worked its way intoSwanson’s rotation and is now animportant component of his system.Swanson’s best corn hybrids havebeen in the 118-day maturity range.2001 was a tough year for corn in hisarea due to extreme heat in July and

“I broke a cardinal rule lastyear and planted a couple

hundred acres of a newcorn hybrid that won myvariety trial the previous

year. Never choose ahybrid on just one year’s

results! It cost me 50bushels per acre because itcouldn’t handle the heat

we had last year.”

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Joe

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Swanson drilling wheat into cover crop cowpeas.

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Joe Swanson planting corn into wheat/dc ‘flower stubble.

very little rain, but it wouldn’t havebeen so bad were it not for onehybrid that completely fell on itsface. Joe comments, “I broke a car-dinal rule last year and planted acouple hundred acres of a new cornhybrid that won my own variety trialthe previous year. Never choose ahybrid on just one year’s results! Itcost me 50 bushels per acre becauseit couldn’t handle the heat we hadlast year.” He’s had his share of suc-cess as well. In 1999,he took 3rd in

the state in the Nat’l Corn Growers’contest in the non-irrigated, no-tilldivision with a yield of 183.7 bu/a.“And that wasn’t even the bestfield—we had another field thatwent over 200 bushels per acre.”Swanson’s 5-year average on corn is98 bu/a, which is nearly identical towhat their milo averaged during thattime. Along with providing a niceincome boost in the good year, cornadds diversity to the system andallows Joe to spread his workloadand risk.

Expanded Rotations

Joe sees the potential benefit ofeven greater diversity than his cur-rent rotations possess, and haslooked at a number of cover cropsover the years. For several years, Joewas doing considerable acreages ofAustrian winter peas planted intowheat stubble that wasn’t double-cropped, but continual frustrationwith the inability of the peas to con-sistently overwinter and growvigorously in the spring, togetherwith high seed costs, led to theabandoning of the practice. Perhapsfinding hardier pea varieties wouldsolve the problem.

In the summerof ‘01, Joeagreed to workwith his consult-ant, Matt Hagny,to put out areplicated trial tocompare severalcover cropspecies withsome of themore traditionalcash or foragedouble-crops.The plotincluded severalstrips each ofsunflower, pearlmillet, canola,hairy vetch, sunnhemp, cowpeas,and soybeans, as well as check stripsevery 20 feet where the planter was engaging the soil but no seedswere planted. All of the crops wereplanted in 30-in. rows on the 10th ofJuly in a field where wheat had beenharvested. The plot area will go to

corn in ‘02, with varying N rates onthe strips to assess each cover crop’seffect on fertilizer needs of the corn(e.g., the 3 strips that were sunnhemp may get 30, 80, and 130 unitsof N for the corn, etc.). The plotswere hand-weeded in late summerto limit the effects of varying weedseed production (in a field-size situ-ation, one would have more oppor-tunity to manage to prevent weedseed production), and considerabledifferences in weed pressure werenoted between different crops: thecheck strips and the vetch were theweediest, while the sunn hemp andcowpeas were virtually weed-free.

Swanson is looking to gain severalbenefits from his cover crops andespecially likes the legumes as asource of nitrogen (USDA researchshows sunn hemp can add 100 lbs.or more of nitrogen to the soil after8 to 12 weeks of growth), but seesother advantages as well. A big onehe noticed this past year was notonly were no weeds growing in thesunn hemp, but it was almost devoidof insects. Joe notes that the sunnhemp would have saved two sum-mer burndown treatments last year.While the plot of sunn hemp in ‘01was planted in 30-inch rows at three

50

“My chemical costs reallyaren’t much higher peracre than when I was

doing tillage.”

Sunn hemp can produce lots of biomassand fix a great deal of N in a short time.Desirable attributes make it one of thepreferred cover crops in Paraguay andparts of Brazil where it is grown prior towheat seeding, according to Rolf Derpschat the ‘02 Winter Conference.

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2001 cover crop plot at the Joe Swanson farm. In the foreground aretwo strips of Group 4 soybeans, then three strips of cowpeas (alreadymature and dried up), and sunn hemp in the background. The cow-peas grew at least twice as fast as the soybeans in the summer heat.

51

pounds per acre, he plans to drill hisnext sunn hemp planting in 15-inchrows at 5 lbs/a. Sunn hemp seed wasavailable for $1.75 per pound in ‘01,although cheaper supplies might beobtained if larger quantities areimported (a list of cover crop seedsuppliers will be posted onwww.notill.org in coming months).

In the past, Joe has had an extensivedouble-crop program and is lookingto replace many of those double-crops with cover crops. When askedthe reason for the switch, “Double-crops are really risky. We’re low onmoisture to begin with, and double-crops are many times break-even atbest. If I can put in a cover crop for$10 per acre and eliminate twosprayings throughout the summerand add maybe 50 pounds of nitro-gen to the soil with a legume, I’mmoney ahead!”

Joe is also looking at cover crops as afit between stacked wheat. In 2001,he planted cowpeas (30-in. rows)into first-year wheat stubble. Thecowpeas grew vigorously for sixtydays, and were then killed with 24oz of Roundup and 16 oz of 2,4-D

and planted to 2d-year wheat. Joehas a check strip in the field with nocowpeas, so we’ll see what effect thecowpeas have on the wheat. Sunnhemp might also fit this nichebetween stacked wheat crops.

“I’m excited about the possibilitieswith cover crops,” although Joe real-izes there is much more to learnabout them and their effects on sub-sequent and neighboring cash crops.Will there be an allelopathic effect?Will the cover crop attract or repelinsects, and which insects? Whatwill the improved soil tilth be fromincreased root growth? What willthey do to disease cycles? Will theyincrease the earthworm population?With the proper choice of covercrop and management, “I certainlybelieve that the positives can out-weigh the negatives.”

Technology’s Role

Herbicide selection is another facetof crop production where Swansonbelieves in diversity. “I don’t useglyphosate on [RR] corn becauseI’m using it on burndowns and on[RR] soybeans. If I stack soybeans in

my rotation, I use Roundup Readyonly one of the two years.” Joe doesall of his own spraying and utilizes aGPS guidance system with a lightbar to replace his old foam markingsystem. “I spray when the wind isdown. With the guidance system, Ican spray early morning beforesunup or at dusk if I have to.” Joenotes that diligence in weed controlis crucial, especially when beginninga no-till system. “You really have toconcentrate on cleaning up weeds—you have to know where yourproblems are! Depleting the weedseed bank will take extra manage-ment and money at first but will paydividends down the road. My firstfew years [three] of no-till, my

Sunn hemp seeds. A list of seed supplierswill be posted at www.notill.org.

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PAIDSalina, KS

Permit No. 96

chemical costs went up, but theyare much lower now, and reallyaren’t much higher per acre thanwhen I was doing tillage.”

Concerning fertility, Joe has triednearly every method and timingknown to man but has settled onapplying all fertilizer either at plant-ing or in-season—no preplantapplications. Corn and milo receivean in-furrow application (4 to 5 gal.of starter blend) along with 3x0placement of 50 units of N as either28-0-0 or 32-0-0. The balancecomes in a side-dress application.Some of Joe’s low-pH soils (4.8 -5.3) have been amended with liquidlime applications. Joe notes that hehasn’t seen big advantages to limingso far, but wants to take correctivemeasures before the low-pH doesbecome a major problem.

Joe brings out the fact that many ofthese ‘new’ practices that we’refinding so useful today really arerooted in history. On his lawn, Joehas an ancient single-disc grain drill,which was horse-drawn and resem-bles an oversize garden tool bytoday’s standards. He remembershis dad and uncle describing havingused that drill to direct-seed winterbarley or wheat into standing cornstalks as a common practice. “Theyreally never did all that much tillageeven when they got the higherhorsepower tractors in the ‘40s and‘50s.” Joe says they also had good

crop diversity back then:their rotations commonlyincluded alfalfa, kafir, oats,and sweetclover until the1960s. Joe’s dad taught him that “rotations are just terri-bly important.”

Joe, again, “My dad reallytaught me to respect the soil.If he were alive today, hewould really get a kick out ofthis whole no-till system.”This perspective lives on inJoe to this day. While Joecarefully manages hisfinances, and bluntly statesthe only reason anyoneshould be farming is to generate profit, he takes along-term view: “My goal is toget my soil erosion down tozero and then over the longterm actually build soil.” Carry on, Joe.

Editors’ Note: cover crop seedand inoculant donated by:Lipha-Tech, Phillips Seed,Pinnacle Crop Tech., DougPalen, and Enos Grauerholz

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Joe’s dad’s no-till drill. The drill’s design reveals theancestry of many features on our ‘modern’ seedingequipment.

Missed the 2002 Winter Conference?

Get the audio tapes of the sessions from ACTS, phone314-487-0135, or see thelink to ACTS from the No-Tillon the Plains website:www.notill.org . Speakers’notes and other highlights ofthe ‘02 Conf. are also avail-able on this site.